I write a weekly travel column for the Columbia Daily Tribune. This blog had focused on stories about American Indian Sites and includes more pictures than my column allows for. I added some stories about native people in other places and will now be putting in stories about American Presidents homes and museums and stories I have written about historical places and museums in the United States.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

President Bush Presidential Library & Museum

GEORGE BUSH PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUM

George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum

We walked away from the
Presidential Library and Museum of George H. W. Bush in College Station, Texas,
with the feeling that he had had almost an ideal background as preparation to
serve as our president.Before his
inauguration in 1989, he had been a war hero, a Congressman, an Ambassador to
the United Nations, a Director of Central Intelligence and a Vice President—all
of this experience giving him a multi-sided view of the world and considerable
ability to deal effectively with negotiations and crises.

On the audio tour the commentary by
George, Barbara and their daughter Dorothy gave friendly, intimate information including
the couple’s love-at-first-sight meeting in college.He had already been a World War II bomber
pilot who flew off aircraft carriers, had been on 58 combat missions, been shot
down, lost the other two men on his plane, been rescued at sea, and had been
awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. One exhibit includes a life-size model
of his Grummam TBM Avenger aircraft hanging from the ceiling, a model of the
aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto, and a model of the submarine that rescued
him.

After the war Bush went to Yale on
the G.I. bill, graduated Phi Beta Kappa in two and half years and still starred
on the baseball team, playing in the college world series of baseball—a picture
shows him receiving recognition from Babe Ruth.

His early life with Barbara is
recorded on a big television screen.Through
her writings we could understand the strong effect on them of the death of
their daughter Robin at 3 from leukemia.The family moved to Texas
where he started an oil drilling business that made him a millionaire.He felt that “any definition of a successful
life must include service to others.” He
was elected to the House of Representatives in 1966 and 1968.

In 1971 and 1972 under Nixon he
became the Ambassador to the UN, an experience narrated by his daughter. After
some illegal activities had been exposed, Bush took on his next job as Director
of the CIA and worked to restore the agency’s reputation.Reagan beat him for the Republican nomination
for president but asked him to be his vice president.While Vice President from ‘81 to ‘88 he did
much traveling around the world meeting leaders from other countries, covering
1,300,000 miles or the equivalent of 52 trips around the world.

We had forgotten how much had
happened when he served as president from 1989 to 1993: the fall of the Berlin
Wall, the revolution in Eastern Europe, German reunification,the end of the Cold War, more freedom in the
Baltics, the coup against Gorbachev, the dissolution of the USSR, the invasion
of Panama, the protests in Tiananmen Square, and Desert Storm.By touching screens we could see the news
stories and learn of Bush’s policies and reactions.

In the reproduction of the White
House Situation Room visitors could experience how the president could consult
with his advisors.A Desert Storm barracks
room had been rebuilt to show how the troops lived and a video gave Bush’s
reactions to the war.Outside the room
the manikins dressed as troops included a woman, which we appreciated since our
daughter Debra had served as an army major in active duty in Desert Storm.On the home front we learned about the
passage of bills such as the Americans with Disabilities Act.

When he left office Bush had a 91 percent
approval rating.However, he lost his
bid for re-election in 1992 to Bill Clinton, partly because of the economic
recession and Bush’s reneging on his pledge: “Read my lips: no new taxes.”In the last display Bush and Barbara talk
about their lives after the presidency and how they have continued to be involved
in a variety of activities including the Library and Museum dedicated in 1997.In retrospect we feel that Bush is among the
most ethical of all our presidents.

THE DAY THE WALL CAME DOWN

A memorial to the fall of the Berlin
Wall at the George Bush Library and Museum

Especially impressive to me was the
sculpture, The Day the Wall Came Down, in
the central courtyard of the Library and Museum
of George H.W. Bush in College Station, Texas.Seeing the five horses, leaping over the
rubble of the demolished Berlin Wall commemorating the November 9, 1989, fall
of the barrier between East and West Berlin, brought back memories of the Cold
War and the two and half years I was a civilian instructor at Air Force bases
in Europe

The sculptor, Veryl Goodnight of Santa Fe, New
Mexico, said after she saw the people streaming
through the collapsed wall, she dreamed of horses escaping into freedom and
used them as a symbol of that freedom.Some family members had not seen each other for 28 years. In some places
the wall had been doubled and the space between had been called the “death
strip.”Goodnight had placed the
stallion, symbolic of man, entirely in what would have been East Berlin, and
the four mares, symbolic of family, as passing the “death strip’ and entering
to freedom.

Another casting of the sculpture, a
gift of the American people to the German people, was delivered by the US Air
Force on the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, was installed
by the German army in the Allied Museum in the former American sector in a
reunited free Berlin, and was unveiled by George H. W. Bush in 1998.

The second memento in the BushMuseum
is a four-foot-wide section of the Berlin Wall bright with graffiti on the West Berlin side, gray on the other.It is protected from visitors’ need to touch
by a transparent covering.

Carla and I and our children lived
in Europe at a time when tensions were high,
and we could feel a sense of danger all around us.The pilots I worked with seemed to be
anticipating the Russians coming across the border at any time.At one base there were 21 F-4 Phantom Jets,
each loaded with a nuclear bomb ready to take off at a few moments notice.At other bases pilots practiced getting into
the air in minutes in order to meet the threat of Russian bombers crossing the
danger line.

When we were stationed in Germany, Carla and I made a visit to Berlin.We had to leave anything that identified us
as being with the military at our apartment near Wiesbaden and used only our passports for
identification.The Wall was 14 feet
high, 105 miles long and was built in 1961 to keep the East Germans from
escaping to West Germany.Like the sample piece at the BushMuseum
the West Berlin side was covered with colorful graffiti, but the East Berlin side was grey and undecorated.

We passed through the wall into the
dismal section that was East Berlin, with
unsmiling people moving furtively past dimly lit under stocked stores.It was an unhappy place.That 900 people were killed trying to escape
was understandable.

George H.W. Bush was influential in
ending the Cold War and the Berlin Wall fell during his administration.It is fitting that he gets recognition for
what was a major world event.